WADA Wants Four-Year First-Time Drug Bans

Proposal would go into effect in 2015.

An athlete’s first positive test for performance-enhancing drugs will be punishable by a ban of four years rather than the current two if a new World Anti-Doping Code is confirmed.

The new code, which has received the backing of the agency's Executive Committee and Foundation Board, will be presented at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg, South Africa in November, Inside the Games is reporting. The new code would become effective in 2015.

Four-year bans are much more significant to an athlete's career, because they effectively remove the athlete from an Olympic cycle. Many track and field athletes have served two-year bans and returned to competition in time to win Olympic medals.

The World Anti-Doping Agency is also interested in extending drug bans to possibly punish colleagues of the miscreant athlete, including coaches and teammates.

WADA is also weighing proposals that would permit flexibility in assessing punishments in certain circumstances, including offenses that might not be construed as deliberate cheating.

WADA President John Fahey asserts that the set of proposals “says to cheats: 'We're going to get you and deal with you even more effectively than we have in the past. The way you protect clean athletes and support them is to deal properly and effectively with the cheats."